University of Virginia Library

23. Mann, Richard

RICHARD C. MANN

by

O. C. Davidson

I was born Jan. 20, 1872 in the Going Snake District of the Cherokee Nation, at Oaks, one of the two oldest towns in the Cherokee Nation. I am a full blood Cherokee; my mother, Elizabeth Miller came from Georgia in the Trail of Tears in 1832, when the Indians were driven out of Georgia at the point of bayonet and brought here like live-stock.

They came here by boats, landed at the mouth of the Verdigris River. A rock with the date of their landing carved on it still marks the spot of their landing.

Upon their arrival here the Creek and Cherokee tribes separated. The Creeks going west of Grand River and the Cherokees settling east of the Grand River.

Upon coming here the Cherokees were permitted to take claims at the land they wanted, anywhere east of Grand River. The stipulations of the treaty were that this land was to be theirs as long as grass grew and the waters run. But later, the white mans greed for this beautiful and valuable country became so strong that, they went to work and legislated laws in Washington where by this country might be surveyed and divided up, allowing each Indian just so much land as a homestead and certain allotment of surplus other than their homesteads.

The full blood Indians never did agree to this allotment system but were forced to accept it.